One of the great side-stories to what has been an extraordinary start to this season's URC, has been the resurgence of Luke Marshall in a blistering Ulster backline.
Marshall began the season with a much talked about return-to-form performance against Connacht, before backing it up over the following weeks, and capping it off with a two-try man-of-the-match display against the Ospreys on the weekend.
Speaking with Balls in association with Ladbrokes, Marshall's ex-teammate, Stephen Ferris, discussed the centre's Ireland prospects ahead of the Autumn Internationals.
He’s an absolute tank of a bloke. We call him the seal because he’s just solid. I’m not going to say blubber, I think seals are a lot stronger than that, but he’s a solid bloke and he punches way above his weight. And it will be interesting to see if he gets into a squad during the Autumn Internationals because I think he’s thoroughly deserved it on his form so far this season
"We all know he’s got the ability, it’s can he get the game-time on a consistent basis to pick up a run of form? I think he’s done that in the opening four games of the season, he’s been one of Ulster’s best players.
"Man of the match at the weekend also, that’s all he’s got to keep on doing. Stuart McCloskey actually went off injured five minutes into the second-half, it looked like he picked up a dead leg or something like that, and James Hume is ready to come back and get stuck back in there."
Stephen Ferris On Luke Marshall
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READ HERE: Stephen Ferris : 'If There’s Ever A Time To Get Munster, I Think It’s Now'
"It's going to be tough for him but I think Luke Marshall can be very proud of what he's achieved over the last season or two," continued Ferris. "Because even rewind the clock back a year and a half ago, you had all these other players who were in a similar position to him signing on new one year deals.
"John Cooney, Jordi Murphy, I think Stuart McCloskey, Craig Gilroy, all just signing these one year extensions because Ulster rugby weren’t really sure what they were going to be doing with them and there was nothing about Luke Marshall, and that’s because of his injury record.
"I think they were like ‘if you can make it to the end of the season then we might offer you something for next year.’ And he made it to the end of the season and had a really good pre-season."
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